A Hynek
Classification of Distant Encounter is usually
an incident involving an object more than 500
feet from the witness. At night it is
classified as a "nocturnal light" (NL) and
during the day as a "daylight disc" (DD). The
size of the object or the viewing conditions
may render the object in greater detail but
yet not qualify the sighting as a Close
Encounter which is an object within
500'.

Lab Employee
Sees "the Flying Saucer"/Radiation Detected

October 23, 1950

Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Bruce Maccabee:

October 23, 1950; Oak Ridge, Tennessee

4:30 PM, Francis Miller, an Oak Ridge laboratory
employee, while driving along a road in Oak Ridge saw
an object that appeared to be less than half a mile
away and between 1,000 and 2,000 feet up. It
appeared as an "aluminum flash" that was traveling in
a south-southeast direction. He only saw it for
a few seconds. Subsequently it was discovered
that a nuclear radiation detection station (a Geiger
counter) in the vicinity of the sighting registered a
burst of alpha and beta radiation. The
purpose of this station was to detect any leaks of
radiation from the Oak Ridge Laboratory. There
was no leakage of radiation, however. An expert
from the Health and Research Division analyzed the
readings from the Geiger counter and pronounced them
unexplained. This association between radiation
detection and a UFO sighting was similar to that at
Mt. Palomar mentioned in Chapter 13.
Whether the reading of the Geiger counter was actually
a result of nuclear radiations or whether the presence
of the UFO induced a transient electrical fault in the
counter or whether there was some other explanation is
not known. This case does not appear in
the Project Blue Book file.

Fran Ridge:

This one isn't listed anywhere; Blue Book Unknowns,
Sparks' updated list, Hatch's *U* Database with
nuclear connection. But the witness told the
Clinton Courier-News said he saw an object generally
referred to as "the flying saucer". This article was
quoted in a 2 November 1950 FBI document. Sighting was
not verified by radar, the document (page 2) says.